Professor Tom Cooney:

We have looked at entrepreneurship strategies across a number of European Union countries. A number of EU and OECD reports have recommended that countries should have a national entrepreneurship education strategy. We looked at countries such as Denmark, Finland and Norway, where these already exist. All of these countries have done it at primary, secondary and third level, but also across the different departments, including jobs and enterprise, finance and education. Therefore, the Government, the education sector and the business sector would be involved. We have seen early results from Denmark, which has done longitudinal studies, which show that where students are taking entrepreneurship education, even if they are not starting up businesses, their behaviour in class is stronger and their results are stronger. Even if they do not start up companies eventually, the results through education are much stronger.

In Ireland we have many good initiatives at primary, secondary and third level but we do not have any coherence across those three levels. One could argue that lifelong learning should also be part of that. What is needed is a strategy that co-ordinates all of this activity, that can identify the gaps and that shows where we can build towards the future. We recognise that there are new initiatives within secondary level that aim to include enterprise among the subjects, but it needs to be more co-ordinated and thought-through than what currently exists.

I think people misunderstand entrepreneurship education. Particularly at primary and secondary level, they see entrepreneurship education as being solely about new venture creation, whereas we think it is about being entrepreneurial. Being entrepreneurial is about recognising opportunity, being positive and taking action for the benefit of one's community, local sports club, social club or any activity. The other thing we recognise is that currently there is a strong inclination towards the points system, whereas entrepreneurship education applies to everyone. One's level of education does not matter.

Frequently, this might appeal more to the person who is doing poorly in the points system than to the one doing very well in his subjects. There is a lot happening, but we do not have a co-ordinated approach. Consistent EU and OECD reports have highlighted this as a gap Ireland needs to address and this is the reason it is recommendation No. 1.